Ratings: NCIS: LA Is Tuesday's Only Gainer, as Many Eye Season/Series Lows

NCIS: LA and the highly entertaining second half of its crossover with Hawaii Five-0 on Tuesday night said aloha to a 25 percent bump in the demo, making it the night’s only program to register a ratings increase. Drawing 15 million total viewers while netting a 3.0 rating, the CBS drama was also up 17 percent in audience.

Every single other show was , best case, flat in the demo or, more commonly, down to series or season lows. Scary.

Seriously. Going hour by hour….

8 pm |NCIS was the night’s most watched program, of course, with 17.25 million total viewers (down 5 percent), while holding steady at a 3.0 demo rating (bested only by The Voice). The Biggest Loser finale (7.1 mil/2.1) added a few viewers but dipped a tenth in the demo for its lowest rated closer ever. Last Man Standing (6.5 mil/1.4) and Cougar Town (5 mil/1.3) each dropped 12 percent in the demo to hit new lows. Glee (6 mil/2/4) was down 14 and 11 percent, returning to a series-low demo. 90210 (1.2 mil/0.6) gained some eyeballs but was flat in the demo.

9 pm |The Voice‘s penultimate results show (8.9 mil/3.1) led the night in the demo yet dipped 9 percent. Trailing NCIS: LA, Dancing With the Stars (13.4 mil/2.3) slipped a few percentage points week-to-week to tie a series low. New Girl dropped 15 and 19 percent to 4.4 mil and a 2.1. The CW’s L.A. Complex dropped to 574,000 viewers but held steady at its (faintest of praise alert!) 0.3 demo rating.

10 pm | Unforgettable (10.6 mil/1.8) led in total viewers, up 12 percent, and was steady at series-low demo, while Private Practice (down 5 percent to 7.6 mil/2.1) scored the demo win. Fashion Star (4.2 mil/1.5) shed 8 percent in audience and was at a series low demo.

I tried watching NCIS:LA when it first came on but couldn’t get into it. But I did watch last night for part 2 of the H50 show from Monday. It was enjoyable but doubt I’ll watch again. H50 was the only reason why I turned in.

If NCIS would get rid of their current showrunner they could be great again too. But the current lack of clear focus and quality writing is sadly evident. NCIS:LA is action-packed and full of life, plus they have Kensi/Deeks for the shippers. NCIS has teased the Tiva thing way too long now, and should have gone forward with it or just let it go several seasons ago. The “Pah!” is gone, and as a long-time, devoted fan of NCIS, this just makes me sad.

Mel, I totally agree…..NCIS needs to replace their current showrunner with somebody who can get things back on track, which includes the TIVA thing and focusing on the Navy and Team Gibbs. NCIS:LA is where NCIS used to be, full of action & life, just like you said. Time to fix this so we can get back to the show we’ve come to love. Having said that…..so far I like what I’ve seen of the the season finale arc, I’m really enjoying it…..this is the old school NCIS we’ve missed for so long and I hope it continues.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I like Glasberg and can see the good he brought to this season. There *is* both good and bad and instead of hoping he’ll leave or lose his job we can hope he’ll listen to honest feedback. Keep doing what he does well and tweak what needs to be tweaked. Speaking for myself and from my POV only, the pros of this season have been things like Glasberg’s writing, I like the episodes he writes, I like that he’s focused on characters more because last season I was on the verge of bailing because I was frankly bored. I decided to give it a chance this season and it’s kept me coming back. This season has had some good stories like “Rekindled” which was such a well-written piece with great Tony backstory, for instance. I’ve also liked Gibbs more this season too. He’s more human and dimensional as a character. I had felt pretty apathetic towards him until this season most of the time. These are good things that I’ve enjoyed this season. I think that they need to spread out the character love a bit more though.
The cons of this season: It feels to me lately like it’s all about Gibbs to the point of taking over stories of other characters. Gibbs is great but I love all the characters, not just him. So when I watched Tony and Ziva go to Cartagena and there was little filling in of her backstory, little of the things I love about Ziva and it ended not on Ziva but on Gibbs and his girl, it was frustrating. I’m glad they are developing Palmer’s story and having him get married and whatnot but the other characters aren’t really going anywhere; they’re just spinning their wheels. None of them has had any permanent growth or any permanent changes in their lives that still effect them like Palmer has this season. Why is that? I’ve seen many a fan asking about Tiva and Abbs and Probie and wanting more development there with the couples and individual stories for them and I concur. ‘NCIS’ is still very strong in it’s procedural aspect and pretty fulfilling in that way. It just needs to work on character development that’s real and that doesn’t get dropped five episodes later and never spoken of again.
I mean, for instance (and this was before Gary Glasberg’s time) why are people getting impatient about Tiva? Because it should’ve happened a while ago if they were being true to the story. In season six and the beginning of season seven when Tony risked it all to save Ziva and she opened up to him more than ever-that should’ve been the catalyst for them getting together. And what about what happened to her there? Here’s what happened in canon: the things that happened to her there have been cryptically mentioned (twice maybe) and swept under the rug much like Paris and never really dealt with or developed. Tony and Ziva are both in the same place that they were prior to the life changing, prioritizing mission in season 6/7.
Take another series which is a multiple award winner, critical and fan success – ‘Mad Men’. This season in the third episode with Joan and Greg. Earlier in the series, during their courtship, he raped her – his own fiancee. And it wasn’t spoken of for long time and their relationship progressed. But there were chinks and these characters grew and developed in a way true to the show and true to the characters. Not one of them is in the same place they were at the beginning of the series. So, in the episode this season when Joanie gave Greg his walking papers, they brought this up and dealt with it in such a satisfying and fullfilling and realistic way. THAT is what all showrunners should strive to attain. That sort of development for all of their characters. Not just secondary characters but all of them. If you want a well-rounded procedural you need not only interesting arcs and stories of the week, which are equally important in the overall picture, IMO, but you need good, detailed beautiful handling of all the character’s stories as well. Matthew Weiner is such a fantastic showrunner. He listens as well as talks and he loves his characters as much as we do. I wish more showrunners were like him. But I digress… This is what I see missing in ‘NCIS’.
If the showrunners work on that with storylines, looking at not just arcs, but overall arcs, the season and the series – the big picture – and following through with them and fully developing them, I think it’ll help a lot. I like Glasberg and don’t want him gone. He’s brought good to the show that I appreciate. But I also see some cracks here and there in the writing that need to be fixed before they spread and grow. And I hope next season that’s what happens.

Basic screenwriting is show don’t tell and yet this week and last it has been exposition, and poor exposition at that. Plus shoehorning PCA’s into what could have been perfectly decent episodes is so pointless. On my Way, the Whitney tribute and now this week’s episode have had characters fitting storylines, grr. I so wish the spin-off was happening so I could just watch Finn and Racehl in NY and forget this garbage.

Finn and Rachel are the worst of the show right now. They were really likable back in season 1, but they are completly different characters now. He’s lost and immature and she’s no longer driven and so desperate for him she’ll even consider a teenage marriege and giving up NY.

I’m with you on ‘Glee’. I wonder if the showrunners realize this. The show has gone so far from it’s original premise that drew in the millions of viewers it gained in its first year. It used to be about a bunch of outcasts and about hope and picking yourself up after you’ve been knocked down and going after your dreams. You know what I loved the most about season one? I loved that after every single episode I was happy and full of hope. It made you feel good. I never examined fully how they did it, but they did. It’s not like that anymore. They lost that. That feeling it gave me in season one, it was something almost no other TV show had. There are other issues too-other things they’ve lost touch with. I mean, it’s not really a show that the whole family can watch together anymore like it was then either. But, here’s hoping someday it finds its way back to what made it great. It’s never too late. ;)

Forgot to add that I actually did enjoy the NCIS ep last night alot, but couldn’t help notice the difference between the original show and LA, which really brought it. The banter between Kensi/Deeks and Deeks/Danno was so much better than the silly jealousy and bickering of Tony/Ziva, which is just getting old now. Sadly, I can remember when Tony and Ziva had that kind of fun, clever banter as well.

That’s part of the reason I’ve started watching Castle…the chemistry and banter between Castle and Beckett is much more fun than that between Tony and Ziva, and without all the meanness and juvenile behavior.

Oh, yea…..ITA about Tony and Ziva……I love the moments when they talk honestly and openly witch each other, not being jealous or bickering with each other, just fun, witty banter. I hope NCIS can bring back that fun, witty banter between Tony and Ziva…..I miss that.

Poor Silver has another other character gone from being the most liked character on a show to the most hated in 3 episodes? 90210 has just destroyed Silver. It seems everyone hate her now since 90210 force her and Liam together. From everything ive seen so far fans do not like Silver/Liam together

I watched the second episode of LA Complex out of curiousity from the posts last week and yes, the bombshell in the final fews moments was a surprise. I’ll watch again. Nothing else on in that timeslot for me.

I’m just gonna slip in that as a guy who regularly watches Hawaii but has never watched NCIS:LA (did watch NCIS until Sasha Alexander left), I really didn’t care for the crossover. It started out strong, but once the NCIS guys showed up on Monday it became clear to me that I was missing important background information on the bad guys that I’d of had to watch LA to get, which is generally a crossover no-no in my books since when you’re watching one show it shouldn’t be assumed you’ve watched another, crossovers are both a fun thing to do an a good way to get fans of one show to start watching another if done right. Instead of offering a nice balance it really felt like an NCIS:LA plot that bled over into Hawaii, especially since on the second half Danno and Chin had little to do besides being extra bodies. Fun factor was also kind of ruined for me (though certainly there was still some fun) thanks to the big ticking clock to a Rainbow Six plot with millions of lives at risk and we got way too much petty bickering. Really hurt the tone. But again, never watched NCIS:LA, so maybe its the norm and its just not my kind of show.

I didn’t watch the first part of the crossover. I watch NCIS:LA every week and I totally loved the episode last night. I even understood the plot without having seen the first episode. That said I really hope they don;t do these crossover epsiodes very often. NCIS:LA is PERFECT the way it is.

NCIS is the best show on tv. Of course there is a slow down sometimes because well a procedural show has to grow and since NCIS has the same characters since its inception it’s hard to bite into a great script. But the actors have so much chemistry together it’s like they are a family and that works for the show the viewers and me NCIS forever